Sorcha... pronunciations?

[pinkytheshrinky]

I know that for the most part this name is pronounced Sor-kha but I met a nice older lady years ago who was a Sor-sha - I do really like this name and it is top of the list for my new dc. What do you think?

I do also have two other dds with Irish names who's spellings have been Anglicised so I do have form for this....

Sorry not 'sh' as in sha

But hang on, how is choosing what I want being arrogant? This is as much about the person I knew as anything else. I don't want to change it because I have set my heart on it. I am not being dismissive of them I am just sticking to my original plan. I am not taking advice, it is not a personal or indeed National slight!

The Scottish thing was brought up by a couple of other posters, I have no idea but there seemed to be a concentration of them there - not scientific but that is what some posters said.

I don't think in the UK it will be such an issue, there is no offence intended but it is my choice. I am not being rude about it but it is what I want to do.

Then go ahead, do it, but don't ask for opinion/ thoughts. Then you won't get them and you wont have to feel you have you have to justify what you are going to call your child.

Call her Sorsha and say it's after the character from Willow.

I am allowed to ask, I wanted to find out about alternatives too (and see if i liked them i guess - but they are not for me) - how can anyone be offended by a random internet person not taking their advice? I was curious and I have gained a lot of information, how can that be bad?

Of course I don't have to justify it, I am just try to explain myself and mollify those who have taken grave offence.

I will look into Willow - is it a film?

Willow is a film and its shite
No one is asking you to take their advice - you asked about thoughts and you got them. I have many Italian friends, I love some of their names but not too fond of the spelling/ pronunciation but would never of use a name from another nationality (e.g. Italian) for a child and changing it to suit myself for fear of the or . But that's just me.

You have made up your mind what you are going to do - which if course is your choice indeed. But give 'Brits' a bit more credit - a lot more of them are clued up about Irish names than you think - so be prepared for party invites to Sorsha rather than Sorcha and the when you correct the spelling (for the millionth time)

I'm still in two minds about whether or not this is a troll post to be honest. Yeah Willow's a film, I've never actually seen it but there's a character called Sorsha who's apparently evil but then she turns good in the end. Or something. That's just what I've picked up online!

I think people are attacking you because they can't understand why you would willingly pronounce a reasonably common name wrong. That sentence isn't supposed to sound bitchy but I think it does, sorry! I have to admit I don't really see why you can't just change the spelling - I know you're naming her after someone, but why carry on a mis-spelt/mis-pronounced tradition? Again, I'm really not trying to sound like I'm on the offence here, I'm just asking! I know people have "family" names but I think the kid will fare much better if you either make up a new name (e.g. use a phonetic spelling of Sorsha) or pronounce it the Irish way. An English colleague introduced me to her friend once as Sorka and her friend (also English) said "Oh, isn't that usually sur-a-kha?" which just goes to show that it's started spreading in Britain too!

The poster who said that the regional variation is not that great is totally right - it sounds more or less the same everywhere, with the varying bit being the middle schwa. I think this thread was really just all of us trying to spell it out phonetically and ending up doing it differently from one another.

I hope that post makes sense, and again, I wasn't trying to offend - just couldn't think of a way to rephrase some things!

'I think it is perfectly reasonable to not want a name that is spelt and said vastly differently. '

LOL, so you take S-O-R-C-H-A and pronounce it Sorsha, when the obvious spelling of Sorsha would be S-O-R-S-H-A?

I seem to recall one of the reasons Sorcha Cusack was known as Scorcher Cusack was that that CH in the middle lent itself to a CH pronunciation.

You have chosen a name (Orla) with a spelling that is perfectly acceptable in modern Irish. The fact that it is completely correctly spelled and pronounced (though possibly the R is more of a W sound for you) seems to have happened completely accidentally however. You were right for the wrong reasons.

Caitlin/Conor etc are completely new names based on Irish names that are pronounced Kawtchleen and Cruhoor in Connemara Irish. The surname O'Connor is, in Irish, Ó Conchubhair, pronounced 'O Cruhoor' in Connemara Irish. Similarly, Sorsha, where the first and second syllables are both pronounced differently from the original name Sur-i-kha, is a new name and deserves a new spelling. Caitlin/Katelyn, and Connor/Conor are new English names with perfectly adequate spellings that convey their pronunciation, and therefore not wrong.

Conor is not pronounced 'Cruhoor' in Irish. Conchubhair is.
Caitlin is not pronounced 'Kate-lin' in Irish, whereas Cáitlín is.
Sorsha is not pronounced 'Sorsha' in Irish but Sorcha is. Because it is an Irish name, whereas Sorsha is not.
If you want to be logical, then you should choose the Sorsha spelling. However, logic is not your thing either apparently.

And Cuchulainn is not 'pretty much phonetic too' either -- how do you pronounce it?

I agree with Superfly wrt giving Brits a bit more credit where pronunciation of names is concerned. Look at Niamh, Fionnuala, Ruairí. etc.

mathanxiety, I am your biggest fan.

* '..whereas Cáitlín is pronounced Kawtchleen..' and '...but Sorcha is pronounced Sur-i-kha'...

Your insistence that you're not being arrogant and your confusion as to why you have come in for such a drubbing shows a real lack of self-awareness...

"My son has Cuchulainn as a middle name. I love this name, it is pretty much phonetic too..."

• Phonetic in which language? English? Or Irish? Why would or should it be phonetic in English? It's not an English name or word. Why would English rules apply?

If it is 'phonetic' in English than that is a happy coincidence, but saying that it is 'pretty much phonetic' has a complete air of arrogance and assumption about it, since you obviously mean it is phonetic in English and Irish words have no more obligation to be phonetic in a randomly chosen language such as English than they do in, say, Arabic or Hindu.

Out if interest, how do you pronounce the 'ch' at the start of the 2nd syllable? Phonetically...?!

"'I think it is perfectly reasonable to not want a name that is spelt and said vastly differently."

• Again - it's not spelt and said vastly different ---- in Irish...!!

If you can't see how these comments come across as anything other than arrogant and dismissive, then...

I had a Kerry Blue terrier called Cuchullainn. I now have one called Fionn,

We pronounced Cuchullain as: (choking noise) oo (choking noise)ullen.

Fionn is pronounced : Fyon.

My next dog is going to be called Ossian.

I love dogs, me....

Isn't Fionn pronounced Finn?

Nope, Fionn is NOT pronounced Finn. I'll leave Maryz to come along and explain it properly.. Iggypup is not too far off.

But should we not just put this thread out of its misery????????

I've just listened to it on that site with Frank McCourt doing the pronunciations and it sounds like Finn to my uneducated ears

Frank McCourt was a bit of a Plastic Paddy though!

Well, ok then, Maryz.. but can we just not bring up the name-that-started-it-all again?

Well I have certainly learned not to use a name unless I am very sure how to pronounce it

My ds's middle name is Eoghan but luckily that is phonetic...

Eoghan is only phonetic in Irish, not English.

One thing to note is that for most irish people, irish is not our first language, we learn it as a second language from a young age and then use it very rarely after leaving school. So, being irish does not automatically make one an expert on how irish names should be pronounced - if there's a difference of opinion, always trust the person who has irish as their first language!

I grew up (in Dublin) thinking Sorcha could be pronounced both Surr-uh-kha and Sorsha - it was only when I grew older and actually thought about it for a second that I realised it can't be Sorsha, it's as logical as calling someone John but pronouncing it Ben really.

Don't even get me started on the different ways people say Aoibheann/Aoibhin.

sor-sha. beautiful name

I am sitting with bated breath waiting to hear how Cúchulainn is pronounced 'phonetically'.
Kuh-shoe-lan?
KUSHalan?
Kutch-uh-lan
KushALAN
Kushelaine
Kuh-SHOE-lane
Kutch-elaine

--the possibilities are endless.

Fionn is fyun; the F is slender, so 'the sound is 'fy''; Irish F is supposed to be produced with the lips rather than lower lip/upper front teeth so it is a softer sound than English F, as Mary says.

Oisín is Ush-een -- Ossian is a quaint Victorian Anglicisation.

Stokes, as far as Irish language proficiency goes, you are right, a lot of people don't work very hard at it in school or bother with the language once they leave, but there are plenty who achieve fluency, maybe even go on to take it in university, etc.